Leeds quartet alt-J grabbed ears with its Mercury Prize-winning debut An Awesome Wave. Building off of lead singer Joe Newman's distinct elastic vocals and a knack for sinuous harmonies and intelligent looping, tunes such as Fitzpleasure and Breezeblocks really stood out.On Tuesday night, a sold out Orpheum audience came to hear the band showcase its second album This Is All Yours.A less immediately appealing record, it certainly is no sophomore slump.

Harm reduction at music festivals has come a long way since Wavy Gravy grabbed the microphone at Woodstock and announced that some bad brown acid was circulating, a warning that he said could be taken “with however many grains of salt that you wish.” RCMP and organizers of the Squamish Valley Music Festival have promised to crack down on the use of party drugs this weekend after two deaths rocked separate B.C. music festivals in recent weeks. But behind their hardline commitment to search bags at entry and confiscate any illegal drugs they find, organizers have created an infrastructure that should help cut down any problems that could arise from more than 20,000 people dancing, drinking or taking drugs like MDMA in hot summer weather, according to B.C.’s top doctor.

The 37th edition of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival is just over two months away, and if you were anxiously awaiting to know who will fill Jericho Beach Park with melodies July 18-20, you need wait no longer.

Every road trip has a life of its own depending on the reason, who, if anyone, is riding shotgun and where the trek will end up. The folks, barroom brawls, road-rage encounters, Santa's Workshops along with the giant Easter eggs, flowerpots, lobsters, nickels and blueberries encountered en route, play a role, too.

The compact SUV, or crossover, market is as hotly contested as the compact car class and for good reason.These two categories of vehicles represent over 50 per cent of all passenger vehicle sales in Canada. Toyota has a formidable one-two punch with the Corolla compact sedan and the RAV4 compact SUV.

We fly into Gatwick airport and pick up a Ka. This is no spelling mistake. A Ka is Ford’s European answer to a slightly oversized Smart Car with enough trunk space for a modest carry-on bag. I assure my girlfriend it is the perfect vehicle for roads barely wide enough to take a mountain bike.

Who owns our coast? That’s easy. We do, of course. But in the context of the heated debate over Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and the related increase in tanker traffic, that simple question gets a lot more complicated.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada’s plant in Cambridge,Ont. has won the gold prize for North American auto factories from industry experts J.D. Power and Associates.
Another of its plants, in Woodstock, Ont., captured the bronze medal in the research firm’s 2012 Initial Quality Study, which surveys car owners about how reliable their new vehicles are.

LONDON, Ont. — Justice finally came for Victoria Stafford late Friday when a jury convicted Michael Rafferty of taking, raping and killing the eight-year-old girl in a secluded Ontario field more than three years ago.

After 45 minutes of deliberations Friday, the jury deciding the fate of Michael Rafferty in the death of eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford asked to re-watch a police interrogation video of convicted killer Terri-Lynne McClintic.

Victoria Stafford's fate was decided in a desolate Ontario field — where the eight-year-old girl was killed with multiple crushing blows from a hammer. Now, more than three years after her death, the fate of her accused killer, Michael Rafferty lies in the hands of 12 jurors in a London courtroom.

During the 40 long days until convicted killer Terri-Lynne McClintic confessed to her role in the death of eight-year-old Victoria Stafford, and named her boyfriend Michael Rafferty as an accomplice, investigators had another suspect on their radar: the missing girl's mother.

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